Enable Ireland Kerry Referrals and Assessments

All children under the age of five years 11 months who may have the ongoing need of team based services are referred via the Kerry Early Intervention Services Intake Forum. This forum meets monthly. It is attended by representatives from the HSE, Brothers of Charity and Enable Ireland. The Forum aims to ensure that each child is refered to the optimum service in the area and to ensure that children in need of a service are identified.

 

Children over the age of five years are received directly by Enable Ireland Kerry from parents, paediatricians, HSE medical officers and doctors, GPs, health professionals and other children's services.

 

Enquiries from parents and carers are welcome, however, we will often look for information that can be provided by your child's doctor or paediatrician.

 

All referrals received by Enable Ireland Kerry Children's Services are reviewed at a weekly intake meeting. At that weekly meeting we look to see if a referral has all the information required and if the child meets the criteria for our Kerry service. If we do not have this information we will write back to the person or team making the referral. If a referral is appropriate we will contact the child's parents/carers and plan a time to meet for an introduction to the service and agree a date for an initial assessment. This is usually within four weeks of the date of the initial referral being received.

Often our first contact with a child and family is in their own home. At this visit the Children's Services Manager and/or Social Worker will introduce the service to the family and explain the assessment process. It gives us an opportunity to start to get to know the new child and family and to share information. Also at the meeting we will be asking the family/carers for their informed consent for service provision.

 

A first or baseline assessment is usually carried out in the centre. The purpose of this is to begin to build up a picture of the developmental status and the intervention needs of each child. This initial assessment takes approximately one hour. At this meeting the child and parents/carers meet the team and have the opportunity to ask any questions they have.

 

Following the initial assessment the parents/carers may be offered further assessment dates and, depending on the age and needs of the child or young person, we may recommend asessments at home, pre-school or school, as well as in the centre. 

 

During the assessment period the parents/carers will receive on-going advice, support, and therapeutic intervention for their child. We will aim to have the full team assessment completed within 10 weeks. Once the assessment is completed and, in partnerships with the parents/carers, we will meet to agreee and Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP).

 

If Enable Ireland Kerry Children's Service is not the best service to meet the child's needs this is communicated to the parents at the IFSP meeting. The person who referred the child to the service is also informed so that a referral to the appropriate service can be made.